New healthcare reform group launched in US

A group of 40 major US companies have formed the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform, whose goal is to lower healthcare costs while increasing access to care by 2009

A group of 40 major US companies have joined together to form
the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform, which will work toward
the goal of lowering healthcare costs while simultaneously
increasing access to care by 2009.

The new coalition will be managed by Jack Quinn and Ed Gillespie,
co-founders and co-chairmen of the Washington, DC-based government
relations and communications firm Quinn Gillespie &
Associates.

The group's efforts will revolve around five "core principles" that
it believes will lead to positive change in state and federal
policies: a market-based healthcare system; universal coverage with
individual responsibility; financial assistance for low-income
Americans; incentives for healthier behaviours; and equal tax
treatment.

"Markets require transparent information on cost and quality to
work efficiently; today's healthcare system fails this
requirement," according to the coalition. "Healthcare reform
policies must provide consumers full access to simple, reliable and
transparent information about costs and quality of care,
underpinned by cost-effective technology such as transportable
digital medical records and e-prescriptions."

The group also advocates a requirement that all Americans must have
health insurance whether or not they are employed, with no
exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Low-income participants
should be provided with financial assistance to help them obtain
health coverage but should not be given free healthcare, the group
argues.

In addition, individual consumers should be offered the same tax
deductions related to the purchase of health insurance as
businesses already receive, the coalition believes.

The formation of the coalition was announced at a May 14 press
conference in Washington, DC, where lawmakers from both political
parties, including Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat/ Oregon),
Senator Bob Bennett (Republican/ Utah) and Congressman Brian Baird
(Democrat/ Washington), met with coalition members to discuss the
issues being targeted by the group. Wyden is a member of the Senate
Finance Committee, while Bennett serves as counsel to Senate
Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell.

Coalition members include the CEOs of a number of
healthcare-related firms, such as Blue Shield of California, Cigna
HealthCare, the drugmakers Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and
the medical device company Medtronic. However, the major portion of
the coalition is made up of large employers in other industries who
are concerned in part about providing quality healthcare to their
workers at a cost that doesn't damage the bottom line. These
members include high-profile firms like General Mills, Kraft Foods
and PepsiCo.

GSK said in a statement that it joined the coalition in large part
because it hopes the group will foster discussion of the epidemic
of chronic diseases in the US and will help work toward "a system
that promotes disease prevention, better management of chronic
diseases, and investment in the innovations that will lead to
better treatments in the future."

The coalition said it plans to be "actively engaged in policy
discussions at the state and federal level" over the next few
weeks. It also said it expects that the number of members will
increase in the coming weeks.